Encyclopedia of Islam

Further reading: Richard W. Bulliet, The Camel and the 

Wheel (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 

1975); Gordon Darnel Newby, The Making of the Last 

Prophet (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 

1989).

Camp David accords

The Camp David accords were signed by Egyptian 

president  a

nWar

 

al

-s

adat

, Israeli prime minis-

ter Menachem Begin, and U.S. president Jimmy 

Carter on September 17, 1978, and created a 

general framework for Israeli withdrawal from 

the Sinai Peninsula, taken by i

srael

 in 1967, in 

exchange for a formal peace treaty between the 

two countries. The 13 days of negotiations medi-

ated by the U.S. president were notoriously acri-

monious, and the two negotiating teams were held 

virtual prisoners at the U.S. presidential retreat at 

Camp David, Maryland, until they reached agree-

ment. Even in the hours leading up to the official 

televised signing ceremony, Begin balked at put-

K  128  

camel

---

ting his name to a document that also included 

provisions that would have led, if implemented, 

to an eventual end to the Israeli occupation of 

Palestinian land in the West Bank and Gaza based 

on UN Security Council Resolution 242. An Egyp-

tian-Israeli peace treaty was signed by Begin and 

Sadat in Washington on March 26, 1979. Subse-

quently, Begin and Sadat received the Nobel Peace 

Prize for their agreement, but the Middle East was 

left in turmoil.

The Camp David accords were the result of 

a lengthy political opening to Israel initiated by 

Anwar Sadat. After Sadat’s surprise attack on 

Israeli forces in the Sinai in October 1973 and 

the resulting military stalemate, Sadat indicated 

through secret diplomatic channels that he was 

willing to negotiate a comprehensive peace agree-

ment with the Israeli government. For the next 

four years, Sadat’s overtures to Israel fell on deaf 

ears until November 20, 1977, when he made an 

astounding visit to J

erUsalem

 and addressed the 

Israeli Knesset. Despite Sadat’s bold initiative, 

the Israeli government conducted substantive 

negotiations only under pressure from the Carter 

administration.

Significantly, the Camp David accords placed 

the Palestinian question at the heart of the Middle 

East conflict. e

gypt

, Israel, and J

ordan

 were sum-

moned to negotiate an agreement to establish a 

“self-governing authority” to represent the Pal-

estinian population in the occupied West Bank 

and Gaza. When the Palestinian authority was 

established, a transitional five-year period would 

commence, the end of which would bring an 

Israeli withdrawal from the occupied territories, 

Palestinian elections, and Palestinian “autonomy.” 

The Palestinian section of the accords was never 

addressed and never implemented.

The Camp David accords resulted in a peace 

treaty between Egypt and Israel as well as the final 

withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Sinai Penin-

sula in the spring of 1982. However, the imperfec-

tions in this separate peace agreement led not only 

to a rather “cold peace” between Egypt and Israel 

but also to a profound crisis in the Middle East 

region. Even before the final Israeli withdrawal 

from Sinai, Sadat was gunned down by Islamist 

opponents of the treaty on October 6, 1981. 

Arab governments initiated a diplomatic boycott 

of Egypt. The Begin government embarked on a 

full-scale invasion of l

ebanon

 in June 1982, just 

weeks after the Sinai withdrawal. Israeli public 

outrage at the massacre of Palestinian civilians in 

Beirut in September 1982 and the rising Israeli 

military casualties resulting from its occupation 

of Lebanon led to Begin’s resignation in 1983 

and his self-imposed withdrawal from public life 

until his death in 1992. The Camp David accords, 

while successful in achieving a negotiated peace 

between Egypt and Israel, set an unfortunate prec-

edent of unfulfilled transitional phases and left the 

question of Palestinian sovereignty unresolved. 

These problems have since plagued every other 

attempt to reach a truly comprehensive settlement 

of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

See also a

rab

-i

sraeli

 

conFlicts

; p

alestine

.

Garay Menicucci